[He Said] Tornado madness!

Everybody knows that, as of late, tornadoes have been rampant across several states. Well, the other day north Texas--i.e. our neck of the woods--got its dose of intense weather. We certainly did not get hit to the same degree as parts of Missouri and Oklahoma, and we are thankful for that; our hearts go out to those who have been impacted in those areas. We know that many families have been devastated. Jen and I can only begin to imagine everything that they are going through. God bless. With that said, however, we got a pretty good scare ourselves here at home.

It was a fairly typical night at the Gilpin house. Storms with heavy rain, and even hail, are not everyday occurrences, but they are not unheard of either. Jen, Zach, and I were just watching tv when the tornado sirens outside started going off. The rain was fairly light at that point in time, so I immediately stepped outside to give the sky a quick look... Holy funnel cloud! I ran inside and calmly informed Jen that there was no need to panic, but that we should gather some provisions. It must have been less than two minutes or so before we had our box of essentials and every pillow in the house stacked in our closet. Then I glued my eyes on the tv weatherman while Jen tended to Zach (i.e. breastfed him on the floor of the closet).

Things never got severe enough in our neighborhood to really stress us out, but it felt somewhat like a close call. The local news station said that tornadoes were spotted touching down close by, and some substantial damage was reported in Saginaw (an area very close to us). Everything was fine; but because of all the recent coverage about serious tornado activity and destruction, we got a little nervous. Needless to say, our family is going to tighten up our plan and preparations for emergencies of the sort.